Clingford High

Chapter 7

I stood in line with everyone else, waiting to claim our textbooks. Everyone was chattering with their friends, while I stood there by myself. I looked at my watch, how much longer are we going to stand here? The line is moving at a slow pace, all of us taking penguin steps as we shuffled along. As I leaned against the wall, I scanned my surroundings.

"Move along, shall we?" A lady yelled from the front of the line.

"I would move if the line could move faster," I thought to myself.

"I would move along if the line could move along too," someone said behind me. I turned around, curious as to who echoed my thoughts, and saw a tall, tanned boy behind me. He looked at me and I can see the reflection in his attractive green eyes. His hair was short cropped with clean trims, clothes clean and crisp, giving off a neat freak vibe. He then turned around and talked to another guy behind him, presumably his friend. I turned and placed my back against the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his friend whisper something in his ear and point at me. I closed my eyes and braced myself, many stories I have read had this scene, and it usually did not end very well.

"Hey, I'm bi, what about you?"

I am not sure if I heard him correctly. Did he just introduce himself to me through his sexuality?

"Um," I hesitated.

"Don't worry about him," his friend interjected, leaning over. "He sucks at self-introduction, as you can see. I'm Jackson, this is Brennon. You?"

"Raelynn, but people just call me Rae. Convenience purposes," I replied, fidgeting my fingers. The two of them were tall and intimidating, probably even more if they were buff. Don't get me wrong, they were fit, and with their body shape, they would most likely be swimmers rather than football players. They had smooth, tan skin, totally my type, but why did I have to be so short?

"You new here?" Brennon said. I shifted my gaze to him and nodded.

"Moved in about a month ago," I shrugged. "My neighbors are pretty nice. Showed up with food, so got to give them credit for that. I mean, who says no to food?"

"Only if it is poisoned," Brennon said, thinking. Jackson rolled his eyes.

"Are you free tonight? There is a welcoming committee in school tonight," Brennon asked me.

"Welcoming committee?" I asked in return. Most people would ask about parties with alcohol, which does not apply to me as I do not like the taste of the drink, but what can I say, I love social events. Brennon nodded.

I grinned. "Count me in."

"Awesome. Be at the gym at 6. See you there," Brennon winked. I looked over at Jackson, who gave me a faint grin. Brennon left the line to cut to the front, expecting Jackson to follow. Jackson bit his lip, opening his mouth as if to say something, but closing it again before hanging his head low and following his friend. What did he want to say? A warning?

Lost in thought, I did not realize the line had moved forward until someone behind nudged me and pointed to the person in front of me, who was 10 feet away. I gave a faint grin and shifted forward. Why did he stop and seemed like he was about to tell me something? What did he want to say? But most importantly, how significant was it? All these questions were going through my head, and before I knew it, I was at the front of the line.

"Name and grade?" asked the lady with a clipboard.

"Raelynn Jones, Freshman," I replied, slightly intimidated by the lady's stern tone. As she flipped through the pages on her clipboard, I peeked into the room. It was full of textbooks and had the faint smell of it too. The place was littered with the yellowed pages of the textbook, with no new books were to be seen. Seeing so many books together made me delighted, despite that fact that they were textbook instead of a good old novel sitting on the shelf in the library. Everything was turning electronic, and it was the only advancement in the 21st century that I wish did not happen.

"Raelynn Esther Jones, come this way," said the lady.

"Please, just call me Rae," I said, but the lady turned away before I could even finish. I don't think she even comprehended my words. I sighed and walked into the room behind her.

Passing the threshold into the room, I noticed how the light from the windows spilled onto the math textbooks, other ladies with clipboards running about, with poor students trailing them. The noisy chatter in the hallways was diminished and being replaced by the hustling and ruffling of books.

"Okay, Raelynn, here are your textbooks," the lady said, pointing to a stack of textbooks with my name written on a sticky note. I thanked her as she rushed away before taking a deep breath and stretched my arms. I grabbed a few textbooks and treaded out of the store, squeezing past other students and staff. My short legs made it hard to navigate my way through the sea of obstacles and soon enough, just as I shifted my body in an attempt to pass through a narrow space between tables when I lost my balance.

"Oh no no no no!" I yelled in desperation as I fell as if yelling would break my fall. I felt the impact on my sides and a thin rod on my back, presumably the leg of the table. The only thing I could think of was how hard the floor was. Seriously, the tiles hurt.

"Hey, do you need help? Or are you just going to lie there?"

I turned onto my back and saw an Asian girl with jet black hair. She has a few pink highlights in her hair, which makes her pink eyeshadow stand out. Her arms were crossed over her chest as if she was judging me for my falling performance. Judging her expression she would've given me a four.

I felt my face flush and I rolled onto my elbow to push myself up from the floor. I flashed an embarrassed smile at her unchanging stature. All she was missing was the smacking of gum in her mouth and a rocker outfit otherwise she would be the perfect cliche emo girl. What she had on instead was a band t-shirt and a pair of shorts with flats. I dusted myself off and started gathering the books that dropped onto the floor.

I felt the girl's eyes staring at me, making me uncomfortable, so I just looked up and demanded, "So, are you going to help me? Or are you just going to stand there and watch?"

For a second I caught her eyes widened in shock with my statement, but she cleared her throat and helped me place the books back on the table.

"Um, I didn't seem to catch your name?" I asked softly as if I was treading on glass shards and a lion was about to come out and chase me.

"Zoe Lanoray. Freshman."

"Well of course. Only Freshmen are allowed in this room," I caught myself saying. She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Gotta make sure I'm not talking to an idiot." I found myself chuckling at her statement.

"Well," she started as she placed the last textbook, a Chemistry one, on the top of the pile. "I got to get going. See you around if we have any of the same classes." With that she turned around and disappeared amongst the mountains of books. I shrugged and went to grab the remaining textbooks I have in my pile.